Surprise
by JWood201
Summary: Elizabeth's trip halfway around the world to Castle Frankenstein may just be a lost cause.


Musical universe. Elizabeth's first night in Castle Frankenstein. Earlier that day, Elizabeth arrived unexpectedly and discovered Frederick with Inga. Slight allusions to and lyrics used as dialogue from various songs, including, obviously, "Surprise," "Alone," "He Vas My Boyfriend," and "Deep Love."

_Elizabeth:__ "Why, I'm Elizabeth Benning, Dr. Fronkenshteen's adorable, madcap fiancée. I'm sure he's spoken of me day and night."  
><em>_Frau Blucher__: "Never."_

**Surprise**

The fire crackled and hissed, spitting embers from its depths as the logs were displaced. Smoke rose into the air, curling and twisting in a demonic dance before disappearing up the chimney. Elizabeth tentatively poked at the logs, not entirely sure she was making a difference, but desperately hoping that she was. The fire sprang to life momentarily, growing and reaching toward the sky and she seemed satisfied. She set the fireplace poker against the stone wall and pulled her thin robe tighter around her body. The chill in the air was relentless and sharp, cutting through her silk peignoir and freezing the marrow in her bones. Elizabeth had never been inside a real castle before and so far it was living up to all the stereotypes. Dark, creepy, eerily silent and bitterly cold.

Elizabeth flipped open the lid of one of her many suitcases and stared into its depths. Her matched luggage stood in a pyramid of black leather next to the vanity table and she planted her hands on her hips as she surveyed the designer garments folded neatly within. Absolutely nothing warmer than a thin sweater to be seen and she'd be damned if she wore her furs to bed. Elizabeth Benning was nothing if not impeccably and appropriately dressed at all times, even in sleep.

The lid shut with a dull bang and she crossed to the large window. She pressed her hands to the cold glass and shivered at the draft coming in around the gaping sash. She pushed aside the heavy drapes and shouldered the window open in an attempt to close it more securely. Elizabeth gasped at the cold air that assaulted her as the window swung open and was reaching for the handle when a sound caught her ear.

Elizabeth leaned further out into the cold night. One floor below her and to the left a soft orange glow was flickering through a window. A faint sound wafted up to her on the breeze and she shivered. She grabbed the wooden window sash with her other hand and stood up on her toes, the stone sill digging into her abdomen as she eavesdropped. She couldn't make out any words, but the murmuring rose and fell in volume and pitch and she thought she could discern two voices, one male and one female.

The window swung open further and she squealed as she fell forward, her right arm extended as far as it could go. Elizabeth tightened her grip and was about to inch back into her room when a figure appeared on the balcony below. She froze and watched Frederick wander out into the night and gaze up at the stars, hoping with all her being that he wouldn't turn to his right and see her hanging halfway out of her window in the most undignified way possible. Frederick filled his lungs with the cold air and moved to the edge of the balcony, the orange glow from within his room just kissing his back and sending his shadow out to blend with the darkness beyond the castle. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his smoking jacket and observed the heavens with the awe-struck look that made her fall in love with him in the first place.

Before she realized what she was doing, Elizabeth opened her mouth to call out to him, but another voice floated out into the night air. Inga bounded out of the room below and onto the balcony. She leaned against Frederick's back and peered up into the sky. She asked him something in that ridiculous accent and he laughed. Frederick pointed up at the stars, drawing invisible lines among the constellations as he explained something to her. Inga's eyes widened and she let Frederick bask in her admiration. The doctor puffed up appropriately and pointed out another celestial being. Elizabeth frowned as Inga rested her chin on Frederick's shoulder, the way she used to when he showed her something beautiful in the heavens. She wished she had paid closer attention.

"Miss Benning."

Elizabeth yelped and jumped. She pulled herself back into the room and twisted around to sit on the stone windowsill. She pressed one hand over her racing heart as she focused on the dark figure standing just inside her door.

"Frau Blucher," she forced out as soon as she found her voice and two horses whinnied in the distance. Elizabeth frowned and glanced around the room, out the window, behind the curtains for the source of the sound, and then back at the housekeeper, who looked like she hadn't heard anything.

Without a word, Frau Blucher moved toward the window, setting her candelabra down on the dressing table as she passed. Elizabeth stepped away as Frau Blucher stretched out into the cold night to grab the window handle. She paused long enough to glare forcefully at Frederick and Inga, who were staring up at her curiously, before slamming the window tightly shut. She pulled the heavy drapes closed and turned to observe her guest.

Elizabeth was rubbing her upper arms, trying to force the goosebumps back into her skin. She straightened her peignoir and fluffed her wind-blown hair.

"Do you need anything?"

Elizabeth drew herself up to her full socialite height, pulling her shoulders back, lifting her chin. "No. Thank you."

Elizabeth sat down at the dressing table and Frau Blucher watched her root around in her train case, removing various beauty products and arranging them on the table before her. "A brandy before retiring?"

"No, nothing."

"Some varm milk perhaps?"

"No … thank you."

"Some Ovaltine?" Elizabeth turned and peered at the housekeeper over her shoulder. "Very good." Frau Blucher jerked into motion and crossed toward the door, scooping up her candelabra on the way.

"Frau Blucher," Elizabeth called, frozen halfway through removing a glittering diamond earring. The horses whinnied in the distance and Elizabeth glanced around the room, into the fireplace, under the dressing table. She turned an inquisitive eye back to the housekeeper, who was watching her blankly. Elizabeth set her earring down on the table and looked back into the mirror. "Did … did Freddy really not mention me the whole time he's been here?"

Frau Blucher watched her watch her reflection, red with slight windburn and lopsided with one dangling twinkling earring swinging into her auburn hair. She was noticeably trying to reignite the sparkle in her eyes through sheer will.

"No."

Elizabeth nodded. "Thank you."

Elizabeth unhooked her other earring and set it down on the vanity, followed by a thick bracelet. She reached for her hairbrush and Frau Blucher took a small step forward. "Not to me, but … he doesn't talk to me much, so … who knows."

A laugh shot out of Elizabeth before she could stop it. "I'm not a fool," she said as she pulled the brush through her hair. "I just wanted to surprise him." Elizabeth turned abruptly to the older woman. "Everybody loves to get a surprise, don't they?"

"Do you?"

Elizabeth smiled wryly. "Not this one, I suppose."

"Men are all alike," Frau Blucher spat suddenly. "Five or six quick ones and they're off with the boys to boast and brag. Even Victor."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Freddy's grandfather?"

"He vas my boyfriend."

She said it so matter-of-factly that Elizabeth was a bit taken aback. The two women watched each other across the room, Elizabeth with surprise and Frau Blucher with no noticeable emotion at all. "How nice," the socialite finally ventured.

"Not really. He was a dirty old goat." Frau Blucher sighed then and seemed to deflate a bit, a shift so physically subtle but atmospherically large that it seemed to dispel some of the crushing cold in the room. "But I loved him. Deeply."

Frau Blucher smiled slightly and Elizabeth grinned back at her. "What is about those mysterious Fronkenshteen men that make them so irresistible?"

Frau Blucher nodded solemnly. "The hair."

The two women caught each other's eyes and burst out laughing. Elizabeth cackled with an intensity and volume that contradicted her petite and elegant frame, while Frau Blucher threw her had back and hooted like the creepiest denizen of the scariest castle in all of Transylvania.

Frau Blucher took two tentative steps into the room, unused to displays of female friendship. Elizabeth turned back to the mirror. "I always thought Freddy was different," she said, wiping at her makeup with a cloth, slowly, meticulously. "I thought maybe if I made him wait … then he wouldn't get bored and leave me. Like the rest of them." Elizabeth glanced at the housekeeper from the corner of her eye. "I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it?"

"No." Frau Blucher stepped forward curtly and Elizabeth flinched. "My Victor vas a beast. A bully and a brute. He flirted with every voman he saw. He taught the horses to be scared of me because it amused him." Frau Blucher glanced away into the corner and pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. "The Doctor is not like him."

"Then why didn't he bring me with him? He knows I despise being alone, even for a few days. When he didn't come back when he was supposed to, I thought …" Elizabeth pulled the large engagement ring from her finger and added it to the pile of jewels on the dressing table. "Well. I guess I'm too late."

Frau Blucher was watching her evenly, without the slightest bit of emotion, as if she already had this entire situation figured out. "Perhaps it's not deep love." Elizabeth frowned and retrieved some hand lotion from her train case, rubbing it roughly into her hands. Frau Blucher shrugged. "Stay. Go to his exhibition. Vatch them do their little tap dance. See vhat happens. Maybe you vill find someone who vas made just for you."

Elizabeth's brow furrowed and she tossed the tube of hand lotion down on the table. "Alright then." She turned toward Frau Blucher and pulled her shoulders back, lifted her chin. "I will. After all, I've never slept in a castle or been to a scientific exhibition before. And I am a little curious about this man that Freddy's allegedly brought back to life."

"That's the spirit."

"Thank you, Frau Blucher." The horses whinnied again, right on cue. Frau Blucher stiffened, regained her distant professional stance, and for the briefest of moment Elizabeth swore she saw an old residual hurt flash across her dark eyes.

Frau Blucher made sure her face was stoic and blank before she spoke. "You get used to it."

"Do you?"

"No."


End file.
